Shar (SHAHR)

(a.k.a. Mistress of the Night / Lady of Loss / Dark Goddess)

As old as the cosmos, Shar is one of the twin deities who created the world, bringing order out of Ao’s primordial chaos. The balance to her sister’s loving grace, Shar resides in the deepest shadows, nurturing the secret hatreds, the unnatural desires, and the lust for revenge that reside in the black corners of the mortal heart.
Her worshipers wield great power over other mortals and have worked their way into the highest governing ranks of countless realms. In the Empire of Netheril, allegiance to Shar, and Shar alone, carries the weight of law.
Her nightcloaks form their own cells from what scraps of secret lore they can find. Temples of Shar practice devotion to her in wildly varying ways. Often the presence of a temple is revealed only to a small inner circle of lay initiates who are tasked with spreading Shar’s whispered dogma in their own way.
Shar is a twisted and perverse being of hatred, jealousy, and evil. She can see every being, object, and act performed within darkness and holds dominion over pains hidden but not forgotten, carefully nurtured bitterness, and quiet revenge for old slights. She spends much of her energy battling her old nemesis, Selûne, in a war that is older than recorded time. She is the creator of the Shadow Weave.

Religion

The church of Shar is made up of independent cells that have strong, authoritarian leaders. All cells in a particular region are under the purview of a superior priest.  Clergy members revel in secrets, using them to tie each other together in loyalty and community. They pursue practical goals of advancing the power of the priesthood and of Shar’s worshipers while avoiding direct opposition of other faiths (except that of Selûne). 

Clerics

The clergy of Shar work to overthrow governments, promote Shar’s patronage of avengers, organize secret cabals, and create false cults to further their ends. Clerics of Shar pray for their spells at night. They have no faithwide holy days except the Rising of the Dark, which occurs on the Feast of the Moon and involves a blood sacrifice and the revelation by senior clerics of which plots the church will be advancing in the coming year. At least once a tenday, a cleric must attend a Nightfall, a dancing and feasting revel performed at nightfall that is followed by a small act of wickedness that the cleric reports to her superiors in the clergy. Shar’s clerics often multiclass as rogues. She has an elite order of sorcerer-monks in her service that uses the power of the Shadow Weave.

Divine Domains

Cavern, Darkness, Evil, Knowledge

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Black disk with a deep purple border

Tenets of Faith

• Reveal secrets only to fellow members of the faithful.
• Never follow hope or turn to promises of success. 
• Quench the light of the moon (agents and items of Selûne) whenever you find it, and hide from it when you cannot prevail. 
• The dark is a time to act, not wait. 
• It is forbidden to strive to better your lot in life or to plan ahead save when directly overseen by the faithful of the Dark Deity. 
• Consorting with the faithful of good deities is a sin except in business dealings or to corrupt them from their beliefs. 
• Obey ranking clergy unless it would result in your own death.

Physical Description

Specialized Equipment

"The Disk of Night" (chakram)

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Shar is the dark twin of Selûne. She has battled her sister since shortly after their creation. Their primordial feud has resulted in the creation of many other deities. Rather than overtly confronting other deities, Shar seeks to gain power by subverting mortal worshipers to her faith. By her very nature, however, she is opposed to powers of light, the unsecretive Shaundakul, and her own sister. Her only frequent ally is Talona, who may eventually serve Shar to stave off the predations of Loviatar.

Divine Classification

Greater Deity

Alignment

Neutral Evil

Gender

female